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Not a Pokemon, but still.

Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection is now available for PC via the Epic Games Store, and until June 18, you can download it for free to keep permanently.

Composition-wise, yeah, it makes sense, but it's still a little strange to me that the main character from the most obscure (and removed) Xenoblade game would be in such a prominent position.

Unless they're vaguely hinting at something.

The original Xenoblade was released 10 years ago on June 10 in Japan. Monolith Soft has released special artwork to commemorate it.




You can find a full wallpaper version at their website.

Interesting that they put Elma in the middle instead of Shulk.

Strictly Limited Games has announced that they have restored the long lost arcade game Clockwork Aquario, and will release it later this year for Switch and PS4.

I don't remember if I've talked about here before, but Clockwork Aquario (or Aquario of the Clockwork, as it was commonly translated as) was developed by Westone, and was the last arcade game made by Wonder Boy/Monster World creator Ryuichi Nishizawa. A prototype was put on test location, but it apparently didn't perform too well, and so went unreleased. Little was known about it, and only two low quality screenshots existed: one blurry off-screen photo, and a blurry black and white screenshot, presumably from a gaming magazine.

In 2012, Nishizawa was asked about the game in an interview with Kurt Kalata at Hardcore Gaming 101. Nishizawa said he thought the game still existed in Westone's archives, and subsequently investigated. He found some of the game's files, as well as artwork and documents, but was unable to get the game into a working state. Plans to finally release the game were abandoned.

In 2017, Strictly Limited Games teased that they would release the game, and then went silent until just recently. Apparently, they've been working to restore the missing game files with help from the original developers.

Here's the press release:

Stuttgart, Germany - June 4th 2020 - Strictly Limited Games and ININ Games are very excited to announce that the colorful game Clockwork Aquario will be released in 2020 - after being lost for 27 years.

The game will be published for current gaming platforms and will be available in limited physical editions, as well as digital. The release date is planned for later this year.

The development of Clockwork Aquario started in 1992 and is the last arcade game ever developed by the legendary company Westone. With its beautiful 2D graphics it was created to push the SEGA System 18 arcade hardware to its limits. Unfortunately, fighting games and 3D games were dominating the arcades at that time which led to the cancellation of Clockwork Aquario.

Originally designed by the chief publisher, and co-founder, of Westone, Ryuichi Nishizawa, Clockwork Aquario can be described as the swan song of a company that was part of an era with historic milestones such as the Wonder Boy / Monster World series.

As a company that is striving for the preservation of video games, it has also become a part of Strictly Limited Games’ mission to unearth unreleased games that are an essential part of the cultural video game heritage.

So, three years ago, Strictly Limited Games set out to find the whereabouts of "Tokeijikake no Aquario", the Japanese title of Clockwork Aquario, and to bring the game back to life.

ININ Games then joined in the endeavours to convince SEGA/LAT that Clockwork Aquario will finally see the light of day, by signing to create a digital release and making the game accessible to a wider audience.

Some parts (including sound, music and several graphics) were not recoverable from the source code, so the particular emphasis is placed on involving as many members of the original Westone team as possible in the project to be true to the game - from the chief programmer, Takanori Kurihara, to the musical genius, Shinichi Sakamoto, to Mr Wonder Boy himself, Ryuichi Nishizawa, who expressed his joy and excitement about seeing the title screen again after 27 years on Twitter.

Ryuichi Nishizawa also said: “Clockwork Aquario is a great piece of 2D art, into which the pixel artists put their hearts and souls. I would like to express my heartfelt respect and gratitude to those who have worked so hard to restore it."

More information about the game will follow soon. If you want to be sure to stay up-to-date on the state of the game, please go to clockworkaquario.com/ and subscribe to the mailing list.

I've been quite interested in this game since I first read about it in the 2012 interview. I love the idea of a lost arcade game finally being released, and I'm a fan of Nishizawa's work on the Wonder Boy/Monster World series.

Sega has released a short video celebrating their anniversary.

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EDIT: Also, just noticed that Sega is today's featured article on Wikipedia.

Fifteen years ago today... I signed up to the NinDB forums.

Sorry you've had to put up with me all this time.